Web design

They say all good things must come to an end, friends, and as it turns out, that time has come for Nyman Ink. After countless newsletters, websites, brochures and fundraising campaigns (not to mention all the other stuff we’ve done), more than 60 awards and a full 22 years in business, we’re creatively exhausted and ready for a break. Two decades is a long time to keep going at full speed, and while we’ve loved every minute of it, we think it’s time to give it a rest.

Nyman Ink’s doors will officially close on Friday, August 31, 2012. In the meantime, we’ll be wrapping up our final projects and tying up loose ends.

But, fear not. We don’t plan to leave you high and dry. Though our physical office will be no more, our website, www.nymanink.com, will remain up and running to allow you to keep accessing all of our free resources, from whitepapers to blog posts. And though we’re getting out the design and marketing biz, we know you’ll still need great marketing professionals to help you with your future communications needs. With that in mind, Judy Nyman, our founder and fearless leader, will also remain available in case you need a referral or have any questions. When the doors close, Judy will be reachable via email at jnyman [at] nymanink [dot] com and by phone at 416-587-5847.

We sincerely thank you for 22 wonderful years of business, friendship and referrals. We don’t know where we’ll end up next, but we wish you all the best of luck with your future businesses, ventures and plans.

It's been grand.

Sincerely,

Judy Nyman, Bonnie Jackson, Nicola McHughen, Jen Selk, Scott Hamel

The Team at Nyman Ink

P.S. For the time being, our blog, website and social media accounts will remain available online, but we will not be updating them.

Infographics are neat. They're in. And lately, they're everywhere. But they've never been particularly easy to create. Even if you are a designer, or have access to one, a good infographic requires both a great idea and solid design skills to produce. Or at least, it did. Now, with the emergence of a couple of DIY infographic tools, fun and informative infographics are becoming something you might be able to create yourself, in no time at all.

Bad news, not-for-profit friends. When it comes to your website (despite all our advice), what donors want and what you're giving them still aren't quite matching up.

Two of the items users most want to see upfront on a not-for-profit website are your goals and how you use donation dollars. In other words, potential donors want to know what you're trying to do and how you spend your money. And sadly, most nonprofits aren't doing a great job sharing this vital information.

Over the past few years, Nyman Ink has switched its focus from print to web design. We still do plenty of print and are still major advocates of print media, but more clients seem to come to us with digital requests than print requests, and we've adapted to accommodate them (and you).

And with the wonderful world of websites, comes the many failings of website design. Well, not failings, per say, but rather, difficulties.

Navigation blindness is just one of those difficulties.

I've probably visited more than 100 different not-for-profit websites in the past year. (In fact, that's a modest estimate.) As part of my job, I'm online every day, surfing around to see what not-for-profits are doing well and not-so-well with their online marketing and communications products.

Considering the vast range of not-for-profits and charities out there, it's not surprising that I've seen a vast range of website styles. And also unsurprisingly, a vast range of website design mistakes.

I've written about this before. In particular, I've talked about the fact that your homepage might be annoying people. I've also written about some of the most common mistakes I've seen on not-for-profit websites in general, but today, I wanted to focus on something much more specific: the not-for-profit homepage and the absolute basics of what it SHOULD contain. Read on and then compare your not-for-profit homepage design to see if it measures up.

I recently received an invitation to a birthday party that requested no gifts. For me, that meant making a donation in the birthday boy’s honour.

Normally I do my best to discern the honoree’s favourite charity, but sometimes I just use my best judgement. Because there are so many charities and not-for-profits out there (see Jen's recent post about being overwhelmed), my choices are endless. Thus, if I become frustrated with the donation method of one charity, I can easily move on to the next.

And that's why donation page design is important.

I came across an interesting white paper a while back and it’s been on my mind ever since. Entitled “Time to Go Mobile: How Leading Non-Profits Are Engaging Constituents on Mobile Devices,” it was published by ASI (Advanced Solutions International), “the largest privately owned software vendor serving member and donor-based non-profits.”

Our Editorial Director, Bonnie Jackson, had an interesting experience with her smart phone last week. She was trying to visit the website of one of her favourite organizations in order to show a friend some of its multi-media content (specifically, a video). The site recognized that she was accessing it from her smart phone and routed her to the mobile site — a paired down version of the main site that didn’t include any multi-media content.

In the last couple of months, we’ve done a fair amount of blogging on the subject of not-for-profit (NFP) websites and web design. We’ve talked about the mistakes in your not-for-profit blog, the fact that you might have an annoying homepage and what your website (as a whole) might be doing wrong.

Looking back, it all sounds a little negative, doesn’t it?

With that in mind, I thought it might be time to write about some best practices for non-profit websites (that is to say, your websites). For the moment, let’s forget what you may be doing wrong and focus on what you could be doing right.

Take your cue from this short list of the most important features of successful non-profit sites. The list features the three key things the most well-designed non-profit sites do (that you should do too).